Identity - Who am I? I Identify as a Believer

If I have not had a chance to meet you; My name is Scott and I am a follower of Jesus and have the privilege of serving Him as the Lead Pastor among the people of Stonewater Fellowship.

I DON’T WANT YOU TO GRAB YOUR BIBLES

That that does not mean that we wont be preaching from the Bible. We will for Sure!

BUt what we are going to dela with this moring and for the rest of this series is one of the most serious things that our culture wrestles with and in reality could possibly wrestle with and that is our Identity.

In order to do that we will be dooing the very best that we can to hear from God - From the whole counsil of Scripoture -

SO Here is what we need to do -

Lets listen to God through the inspired work of the Holy Spirit Says.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

All Scripture is breathed out by God

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, For the wages of sin is death.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;

MY PRAYER FOR THIS MESSAGE

IS that we would begin to understand our Identity in Christ

But here is the important part - That when we claim “our Identity” in a very large way our Identity is a self identity -

We our understanding of who we were and who we are and who we will become is shaped and described and delineated from God through the Bible, but until we claim it for ourselves and allow it to dictate how we live. it is just words on a page and has o transforming power to it.

PRAYER FOR THE MESSAGE

That we would leave this place this morning with a new Claim on our Identity that would begin to change us in three areas.

1 - What our influences are.

2 - What our minds a filled with!

3 - And what our life agenda begins to be about!

TENSION

I’m not sure that there has been a more powerful and interesting dynamic that has invaded almost every area of life in our modern times and world that the dynamic of Identity.

I think this subject has come and gone in different ways through out history especially over the last 5-70 years

But in the last 20-30 years - The framework of Identity has taken on a whole new dynamic and power in our cultural conversation that a lot of us don’t really understand it. and frankly we are significantly caught off guard by it.

And I think one of the things that has happened many years ago was this re-envigorized practice of taking back a sense of power by not letting anyone else label us or describe us in particular way becasue that would mean that is how we are identified by others.

SO we began years and years ago for this journey to self and asking the question How do I want to Identify my self?

This is run its course to the present day and has some extreme examples.

I'm not sure there is more of a dynamic example than what we currently see and hear in our culture than the self identity proclamations around gender.

he and him as she and her or they and them and all sorts of interesting language use Which has ended up with biological boys thinking and acting like girls and biological girls acting and looking like boys

girls in boys sports and bots dominating girls sports

Rolls and definitions become fluid and subjective and really what seems like and feels like for some of us a complete loss of reality

but at some level there is a sense of being true to something that is at least for those who are in this culture.

and Here is what is interesting - You see the agenda being pushed -

YOu see the language being insisted upon -

YOu see the offence if not identified by everyone they way they identify them selves

And you ask “what is true about that pastor?”

I think that one of the things that is true is one of the things we might all need to learn.

You see one of the true things that they can say about them selves is they are living and acting and spreading from person to person exactly what they believe about who they are -

The people that Identify thyme selves as a certain gender that is not what their biological gender is or who identify in a gender that is not on the dual gender plane that other people describe are in every way acting and thinking and responding to the world around them in full alignment with what they believe.

BACKGROUND -

SO church…

Who are you?

Is who you are who you really are or simply someone you are claiming to be?

Is who you are driven and defined by what you believe?

Is what you do and how you interact with the world around you deiven by what you believe?

What do we believe?

What do we believe about ourselves?

What do we believe about the word… about the word… about our work… or do we simply wonder?

I think there are many in this room that would self identify as a Christian.

Every Sunday morning that I open the scriptures and spend time for all of us to be exposed to that God says in worship to Him I usually begin with introducing my self.

And I say “My name is Scott, - which is my proper name - I then share my identity - who I am… I say I am a follower of Jesus.

Here is the crazy thing - I do not say I am a Christian.

That is such an interesting word - Christian - it means little christs. Little anointed ones.

the Bible does not call jesus followers “christians” Jesus never called HIs disciples or his apostles - Little anointed ones”

He called us Sheep - He called us brothers - He called us disciples - the Scripture calls us Saints - Followers of the Way

in the original time it when the word christian was used it was used in a couple of potential ways - It was in Antioch that they were first called Christian -

1 Potential was that it was used a derogatory and dismissive way - A lot of the way it might be used today -

The other potential was to Identify a certain group of people who followed Jesus

I love the way one author Eric Celerrier puts it -

“The believers’ lifestyle was so clear and unmistakable that this name was assigned to them. Because they put into practice what they had learned from Jesus, they completely achieved the mission that was given to them (and to us): to represent Christ and make Him known!”

People used the term back then to describe the people group that belonged to Jesus -

Those Jesus People.

Here is the interesting thing -

So Self Identifying as a Christian or as a Jesus follower or disciple “saying I belong to the way” or “I am a saint”

it is not a subjective term -

It is not subjective to your or my understanding as to what that word means -

It has an objective meaning today that has grown out of 2000 years of following Jesus by millions of people and all of that began with the people who heard from God and were pushed along by the holy spirit to write this collection of letters called the Scriptures.

SO how does this Identity of who we are as Jesus followers really begin.

It begins with the term “believer”

I AM A BELIEVER

In order to begin with the identity of Jesus follower or Christian or any other term that is connected to salvation - It begins with I am a believer.

A believer in What?

In other words I have to say that I am a Truster - I Trust.

We must be able to say - I Trust Certain Objective Realities -

I am going to go down this list and we will hear from Scripture -

Here is where my curiosity get the best of me -

AS I go down this list of what we are to Trust that Biblically and Historically Jesus Followers have believed for nearly two millennia now =

I am wondering if and when any of us would exit the train so to speak?

Here we go

We Trust that there God is and that He is ONE God -

Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

YHWH our Elohim YHWY is ONE -

SO we trust that God is and that He is ONE GOD.

We also Trust and Believe that HE Eternally exist as ONE in Three Persons -

Jesus Said -

John 14:26 ESV

26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

We Trust that the Bible - The Scriptures are the Word of God,

You see here is the deal about the Bible. It is Historically attested to as the most influential and inter connected collection of literature and the most influential collect of ancient literature of all of human history. AS such it is unique and special .

However the people that have used it and the people who spoke it Some of which are in the collection of writings - Say it is written by GOD -

and So we believe - We trust - that the bible is written by the Holy Spirit of God through the mechanical hands and mental capacity of Human penmen.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

We trust that All of Humanity is deserving of honor and respect and dignity becasue we trust that every human is made in the image of God.

Genesis 1:27 (ESV)

27 So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

And As created beings who have the image of God -

We Trust - The firsts humans Rebelled - Sinned against a holy and righteous and loving God who had created them in His image to know Him and love Him and be Loved by Him.

Genesis 3:1–13 ESV

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

and becasue they were the first humans and we are all ancestors of them - We can easily look around at our culture and our behaviors and our history and we can clearly see the truth and trust that - Sin has been passed down to us. To all of us.

Romans 5:12 ESV

12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

Romans 3:9–12 (ESV)

9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;

11 no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does good,

not even one.”

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 6:23 (ESV)

23 For the wages of sin is death,

SO we Trust in our natural state -

Broken Relationship with God -

Broken relationship with each other -

Broken systems and constructs -

Broken humanity

ALL of us broken - All of us!

and we TRUST THAT -

AND WE TRUST the Humanity can be Restored

That our broken relationship with God can be made whole again.

WHY? Because God is LOVE and HE acts on His being love every moment.

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Romans 5:8–11 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

We trust and believe that God gives us faith - God gives us the supernatural ability - A gift from Him to believe- TO trust and our God Given faith brings us to Jesus -

Jesus - Who saved us from the wrath of God as guilty people and made us not guilty of Sin against God and Removed the offence against God by His blood.

Paying the price and suffered the penalty for us on the cross.

and that by the finished work of Jesus and Jesus alone we have been reconciled to God and through Jesus we have recieved reconciliation - In other words our relationship with God has been restored -

We believe that and trust that - which means we live in a way that trusts that - and all that it implies

And so we trust that we are saved - and we trust that we are saved for WORK -

not by work but we are saved FOR WORK -

and so our relationship has been restored and it has been restored for a reason - Restored so that God can get all the glory and be glorified in all the earth to all persons - by our life.

SO I trust - that

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

1 Corinthians 16:13–14 ESV

13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done in love.

2 Peter 1:5–11 ESV

5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

James 2:14 ESV

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

James 2:17 ESV

17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

James 2:22 ESV

22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;

APPLICATION OR IMAGINE

So I trust and SO I Believe - How does that change us? - How do we live that trust out?

Just like believing that the chair will hold us and so we sit down - not in a step of faith but because we reason and rationally think the chair will hold us and so we sit -

How do we DO in the frameworks of our trust? -

How do we live our our trust?

How do we live out our IDENTITY as believers to our selves and to the world around us?

THREE APPLICATIONS

ONE

- Read our Bible.

It is the most influential collection of literature of all of human history.

I like what Jordan Peterson said - It is the one collection of literature that is the basis by which we understand all literature -

IT is the single collection of writings that have shaped human cultures and behaviors for the last 3500 years.

It is in and of it self a library

It is not Just true it is more than true - It is the basis by which things are known as true -

The Bible is the Precondition of the manifestation of truth which makes the bible much more than true -

IT is Written by GOD himself!

Peter says that

2 Peter 1:19–21 ESV

19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

2 Peter 3:15–18 ESV

15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

So let us read and study and be equipped for EVERY good work.

TWO

- We prioritize Prayer -

Prayer is the weapon of faith that we use to extinguish the fire darts of the enemy - It is the shield we place around our families - It is the relationship time in prayer that God undertakes for us

Things that only happen with prayer and fasting -

Two or more Pray - answered prayers are Promised -

Prayer is the means by which gifts of healing are distributed with the anointing of oil

Prayer is the means by which we love and care for each other as we confess our struggles to one another.

Acts 2:42 ESV

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Prayers is the means by which we combat spiritual forces of darkness for each other.

Colossians 4:12 ESV

12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.

IT is the mechanism by which the full armor of God is placed upon us in the spiritual rehelm

THREE

We then Share what we believe -

We live the truth out by sharing what we believe in word and in deed - We take the Gospel to ANYONE ANYWHERE ANYTIME -

Acts 4:19–20 ESV

19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

You see what God is calling all of us to do form the very beginning of scripture is to LIVE out our Identity -

Live it out - Speak it out - Share it out - Shout it out - relationship and with love and understanding -

There is a race that is marked out before all of us -

It is a race that we are called to RUN -

It is clearly marked - it is a race to Jesus to see Him and Know Him and Serve Him and bring glory to Him in all of our live and ultimately to be united with Him Enjoying Him for ever and Ever And Ever -

And what Jesus calls us to Do is to Run this race that is clearly marked out before us - To Run it with Endurance - Keep Running Keep Running -

And in order to Keep Running we get rid of anything in this world that distracts us from this race, possessions or other things that wiegh us down and make it harder to run this race.

and we Put to death any Sin in our lives that tries to stop us from running and we Keep our eyes on Jesus as we RUN -

So Church as we begin to take the Identity of Jesus Follower - Begin that with I am A believer -

and as a believe - I read my bible - I prioritize prayer and devote time and energy to it by my self and collectively with others.

and I share with others what I have seen and heard becasue I cannot stop sharing the love of God with the world who needs it in the most desperate way